Nipper Read dies aged 95
LEGENDARY detective Leonard “Nipper” Read, who was credited with smashing the Kray twins’ criminal empire, died yesterday.
Family members said they understand the 95-year-old caught the coronavirus in hospital.
As a detective superintendent, Read led the Metropolitan Police team that brought down the Krays.
Meticulous and immune to corruption, he was the perfect man for the job but it would take years of painstaking work before the twins were brought to justice.
Crime journalist Jeffrey Robinson paid tribute to Read as “a great man from a very different world.”
He added: “He once told me the Met insisted he be armed when he arrested the Krays.
“He was scared to death. Not because of the Krays, but because it was one of the rare times he [carried] a weapon”.
The Krays themselves were all too aware of Read’s brilliant detective work.
Ronnie once predicted that if anyone ever arrested him, it would be “the cunning little b ***** d”, Read.
And he was right not to underestimate the man, nicknamed Nipper due to his small size as a child. A born fighter, he enjoyed success as a junior lightweight boxer and later chaired the British Boxing Board of Control. After almost 20 years with the Met, in 1964 Read was offered a “special job” by Area Chief Supt Frederick Gerrard. Gerrard told him to “get a little team together and have a go at the Krays”. So Read recruited ten officers and patiently went to work.
In 1966, Ronnie Kray shot dead George Cornell, a member of rival gang the Richardsons, at the Blind Beggar pub, Whitechapel. The next year, Reggie stabbed Jack “The Hat” McVitie to death. Thanks to Read’s team, the twins were arrested in 1968 and convicted of murder at the Old Bailey in 1969. Ronnie died of a heart attack in 1995, and Reggie from cancer in 2000. Read died at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Harlow, Essex.
The Met Police Heritage Centre said yesterday: “We are sad to announce that Leonard ‘Nipper’ Read died aged 95.” David Eager, who worked alongside Read as a detective sergeant during the investigation, said: “He was very wellliked and respected by all.”
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